It is known to attach the engine transmission unit to the vehicle body via elastic mountings or bearings. Such an elastic mounting has a support member rigidly attached to the engine transmission unit and a flange rigidly attachable to the vehicle body. Commonly the flange is shaped in form of a bridge extending mainly in longitudinal and vertical direction and thereby partially spanning across the support member in longitudinal direction. The flange is usually mounted in longitudinal direction of the motor vehicle and consequently essentially oriented in driving direction of the vehicle. In contrast, the support member extends in transverse direction away from the flange and defines a mounting area to which the engine transmission unit is to be attached, and which extends in transverse direction out of the bridge-shaped flange in order to provide accessibility in vertical direction when putting down the engine transmission unit onto the mounting area.
The elastomeric body of a known elastic mounting serves the purpose of elastically supporting the support member on the flange. As is known, the elastomeric body has a vertical support spring member essentially receiving a static load force of the engine-gear unit acting in a direction vertical to the longitudinal and transverse direction of the motor vehicle. The vertical spring member is usually formed like a sleeve in order to provide a uniform support in transversal and longitudinal direction.
In order to provide a vertical restriction of a relative movement between the support member and the flange, separately vulcanised abutments are provided at the support member and at the flange. For example, the elastomeric abutments interact with the inner surface of the bridge shaped flange. Furthermore, the known elastic mounting has an elastic abutment bead extending in longitudinal direction and located outside the bridge shaped flange, the abutment bead being attached to the support member and limiting an amplitude of movement of the flange in transverse direction.
The known elastic mounting is applied in particular in order to elastically attach an engine transmission unit mounted transversally to the driving direction to the motor vehicle body. The known elastic mounting is expensive to manufacture because for each of the different functions of the elastomeric body, i.e. abutment, support spring member, etc. separate elastomeric sections are to be vulcanised and corresponding tools have to be shaped. Furthermore, the known elastic mounting has a large dimension in vertical direction occupying a considerable portion of the engine compartment space which is usually very limited.